Miners' deaths likely to bring safety changes

Vicki Smith, The Associated Press

Published 10:00 pm, Sunday, January 22, 2006

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- In death, 14 West Virginia coal miners have achieved something that just a month ago seemed an unlikely goal: Labor, industry and lawmakers are united in demanding that the dangerous subterranean occupation be made safer.

Hours after the bodies of two missing miners were found Saturday in Aracoma Coal's Alma No. 1 mine at Melville, Gov. Joe Manchin and West Virginia's congressional delegation called for a major overhaul of state and federal mine safety laws.

"This is a time for all of us who share responsibility for mining safety to come together and look for ways to make mining safer," said Carol Raulston, spokeswoman for the National Mining Association in Washington. "We have made dramatic improvements over the last 15 years, but there's more to be done."

The bodies of Don Bragg, 33, and Ellery "Elvis" Hatfield, 47, were found Saturday, two days after a conveyor belt caught fire inside the Alma mine in southern West Virginia. Their deaths came just weeks after a mine explosion Jan. 2 that led to the deaths of 12 miners exposed to carbon monoxide inside the Sago Mine.

UMW president Cecil Roberts said Congress and state legislatures must take steps to ensure existing regulations are strictly enforced.

"We must also develop new initiatives that will give every miner a vastly improved chance to walk out of a mine after an accident, alive and well and safe in the arms of their loved ones," he said.

Nationally, there were 22 mine deaths in 2005, a record low. Three of those were in West Virginia, the nation's second-largest coal producer.

Manchin said he would ask West Virginia lawmakers today to pass three bills being written over the weekend to improve rapid response to mine emergencies and set up electronic tracking technology for lost miners and reserve oxygen stations underground. He also plans to meet with federal lawmakers.

"We must put into place commonsense proposals like these that will provide improved safety and security for miners and their families," said Sen. Jeff Bingaman, a Democrat from New Mexico, which has the nation's fifth-largest underground coal mine by tons produced.

If Manchin's effort results in federal action, it could be the third time that a West Virginia tragedy has had nationwide ramifications.

The Mine Safety and Health Act was written a year after a 1968 explosion at Farmington, W.Va., that killed 78 miners, including Manchin's uncle. Federal laws governing the construction of mine drainage settling ponds were adopted after 125 people where killed when an impoundment gave way in 1972 and flooded communities along Buffalo Creek, 20 miles from the Alma mine.

"When people get mad, they're more likely to do something," said Sen. Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va., who was with Manchin when the families of the Alma miners were told the men were dead. "When I go back to Congress ... what's happened at Sago and what's happened here, there's got to be a lot of mad people."

The Bush administration is reviewing safety equipment in mines after scrapping similar initiatives started by the Clinton administration. Miners' advocates said pulling those initiatives stopped potentially important safety rules from becoming reality; the Republicans cited changing priorities and resource concerns.

The owner of the Sago Mine, International Coal Group Inc., isn't waiting for federal action. President Ben Hatfield says he's already formed a team to pursue change.

"We are absolutely going to get better and safer, and better-positioned to react to crisis, regardless of what state and federal agencies say," Hatfield said.